Rune struggled to wrench his arm free from the hardened webbing, the strands pulled tight and fused against his side. The more he fought it, the more it resisted, every movement answered with an unyielding pull.
More webs came flying toward him.
He twisted away on instinct, feet sliding across the stone as the strands snapped past where his head had been moments before.
Even bound, divided in focus, he could still see them coming.
His attention split between evasion and the growing pressure crushing his trapped arm.
'This is getting annoying.'
"Damnit. Alright. Time to take more extreme measures."
Light gathered along the edge of his free axe, the glow sharp and concentrated, humming as it answered his call. He raised it without hesitation and brought it down against the webbing binding his arm.
The impact detonated in a sharp burst.
The webs ignited instantly, burning away in curling wisps of ash and light.
The heat did not stop there. It washed across his skin, burning deep, forcing a sharp breath from his chest as smoke rolled from his arm.
Pain flared, raw and immediate.
But when the light faded and the last of the webbing fell away, his arm dropped free at his side, scorched and trembling, yet his once more.
Rune flexed his fingers slowly, ignoring the sting.
'Worth it.'
There was no time left to dwell on the pain burning along his arm.
Larger warrior spiders were already charging in, their heavy frames rattling across the stone, while the smaller ones at the edges continued to hurl clumps of webbing.
Rune moved.
Shadow flowed over him once more, sharpening each step as he slipped between snapping legs and flying strands.
As he carved his way through the mass of spiders, Rune struck each one in passing, never slowing his pace. Two rapid blows landed in quick succession on every target.
The opening movement of Triple Judgement staggered them, halting their momentum mid-charge.
The second followed immediately after, the impact sharp and focused, cracks spiderwebbing across their crystalline bodies.
Stunned. Fractured.
Each one left behind in that state, primed and waiting for what came next.
Light and shadow coiled together around his arms, the two forces twisting tight as they infused his muscles with sudden strength.
He flipped his axes around in his hands and moved.
His path cut forward in a sharp zigzag, passing straight through the cluster he had already broken. The blunt backs of the axes came down in rapid succession.
The blunt metal struck hard against the crystal.
Each impact landed directly against the fractured points, smashing into the glowing cracks and tearing them wider.
Crystal bodies came apart under the force, splitting and collapsing as he passed through them, leaving shattered remains scattered across the cavern floor behind him.
Two more webs flew toward him.
Rune stepped left, then right, the strands snapping past his shoulders. His breath came heavier now, sweat slid down his face and dripped from his chin.
'Keeping track of everything coming at me is getting harder the longer this goes on.'
Only six of the warrior spiders remained. Their heavier forms still pressed in close.
The five ranged spiders, however, clung higher along the cavern walls, untouched, continuing to rain webbing down from beyond his reach.
'This won't end unless I slow it down.'
'I need something… something that can reach them.'
Their webs sparked a memory.
Shadows stirred beneath the larger spiders.
From their legs, their own silhouettes stretched and twisted, shadowy tendrils rising up from the ground. They coiled around the spiders' bodies in an instant, wrapping tight, locking joints in place.
The monsters froze mid motion, restrained by their own shadows, pinned where they stood.
[Shadow Tether remembered…]
[Element Power increasing… +5]
Rune exhaled slowly.
The memory continued to wash over him, his body moved with it. Rune launched both axes infused with light energy up at the smaller spiders.
They crashed into their crystal bodies, exploding in bursts of light, sending crystal flying.
Before the axes could fall to the ground, shadow tethers formed from Rune's hands, attaching quickly to the handles of the axes and snapping them back.
The axes hit his hands with enough force to cause him to flinch slightly from the recoil. He threw them again, dodging more webs as they came in.
BOOM!
BANG!
Two more of the smaller ones broke apart.
He hurled one last axe toward the final ranged spider.
The moment it left his hand, he heard it.
A sharp snap.
His focus had faltered for just an instant, allowing one of the restrained warrior spiders to tear free, shadow tendrils snapping apart as it lunged straight for him.
Rune shifted to move. His leg did not respond.
He glanced down.
Webbing clung tightly around his foot, fused to the cavern floor.
At the same moment the last small spider exploded, it had managed to release a final shot, binding him in place.
"Well… crap…"
The thought barely finished forming.
A crystal leg thrust forward. It punched straight through his thigh.
His axe snapped back into his hand.
Rune brought it down without hesitation, severing the spider's leg cleanly and leaving the jagged crystal shaft still embedded in his thigh.
The creature recoiled.
Before it could recover, Rune swung again. And again.
His movements lost precision, turning frantic as he hacked into the spider's body, tearing away chunk after chunk of crystal.
Light bled out with every strike.
At last, the glow within the spider dimmed completely, its body collapsing into a lifeless heap at his feet.
Rune remained standing there, bound to the cavern floor.
The burn on his arm was starting to get to him, muscles trembling as the damage made it harder and harder to lift.
A shard of crystal speared through his leg, pain pulsing with every breath he took.
Worse still, the mental strain was catching up to him.
Holding his element active for this long weighed heavily on his focus, pressure building behind his eyes. Across the cavern, the shadow tethers binding the remaining spiders began to shudder and thin.
Cracks ran through the restraints.